One of the world's best hackers and "spy tech" experts, Karl Altschuler generally worked behind the scenes, hiring out to provide intel and support to "agents" planning various missions. The politics and morals involved interested him very little; instead, he thrived on the mission and the plan. A chess grandmaster, he enjoyed moving agents around in their various environments, maneuvering them from afar to succeed in the plans he'd been hired to help with.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that a plan would ultimately require a "gamepiece" on the inside who was more skilled than anyone Karl could recruit. The mission needed someone of Karl's own genius on the inside. It needed him. He hesitated for a full day before deciding to go ahead with it, but once he did, he was excited, euphoric at the possibilities.

His plan and execution were flawless, but the mission, the infiltration of a secret Chinese biotech facility, proved to be a disaster nonetheless. No one could have anticipated that one of the Chinese test subjects would coincidentally wake up and go berserk before Karl and the team of European mercenaries could extricate themselves. The Chinese never even realized that the infiltrators were there, but that didn't stop the enraged pyrokinetic from blasting through a wall with a fiery explosion, instantly killing two members of the mission team and vaporizing nearly a third of Karl's skull. To their credit, the Europeans brought him home, holding him together despite his minimal chances of survival. He'd held up his end of the bargain, after all.

They turned him over to Dr. Johanna Weinhardt, a brilliant Austrian doctor with enough skeletons in her closet that they knew she'd keep quiet. Karl required more than just new plating on his skull. One eye was gone and he'd suffered enough brain damage to impair his motor functions. Employing radical experimental cybernetic techniques, she created plating on his skull, replacing his eye with an infrared sensor and using high-end computer chips to supplement higher brain functions. Finding that his health was weakened by infections, she treated his body with steroid injections and enhanced vitamins.

The Karl Altschuler who emerged was incredibly agile, both mentally and physically. Fascinated by his cybernetic aspects, he quickly learned to "hack" his own brain implants, to the point where he could create special "mod" chips that gave him new knowledge instantly. The more he learned, the more expensive his tastes became. Using his enhanced abilities, he pulled off a few crimes on his own, but quickly began to recruit other operatives to serve in his schemes, rechristening himself Deadlock. The Comets were born.

Personality

Always a master planner with a thirst for danger, Deadlock has become an anarchist to boot since his accident and the implementation of his cybernetics. A self-professed "Alpha Geek", he wants to prove himself the best hacker in the world and wants to establish the Comets as the "go to" team for special missions and thefts.

Although an American, he considers himself a citizen of the world; he's heavily influenced by cyberpunk writing, Japanese anime, and German and East European music. He's an arrogant man, but tends to earn his arrogance with his meticulous planning and careful, paranoid precautions. Profilers who have analyzed him have found him to be a mixed bag: paranoid about being captured or monitored, resistant to any sort of authority, conceited, scrupulous in his business contacts, addicted to high tech and cybernetic improvements (particularly to brain implants), jealous of others, and possessive of his "possessions" (including and especially his romantic conquests).

An extremely meticulous and skilled planner, hacker, and 'social engineer,' Deadlock is probably most dangerous for his mind, not his body. That said, he is a formidable combatant. Dr. Weinhardt's modifications made him much faster than the human norm, with machinelike reflexes. He also possesses above-average physical strength and resilience.

By popping a skill chip into one of several available slots under his ear, he can immediately gain incredible amounts of knowledge. Often, this includes detailed schematics of any area he seeks to infiltrate, personnel records related to that area, and more. He also can use them to learn new languages, become an instant expert on various topics, and more. One of his favorite mods, employing expert systems and data from hundreds of hours of competitive footage, makes him and instant kenjutsu master.

Appearance

Deadlock has shaved his head bald ever since his accident. The right side of his head and part of the right side of his face are covered by metal shielding. His right eye has been replaced with a red, glowing infrared sensor and the skin around the metal shielding is riddled with scars. He typically wears a sleeveless black leather trench coat with yellow piping, a dark blue sleeveless jumpsuit, and black leather boots and gloves. He carries various tools and "mod packs" on a belt around his waist, as well as in various pockets of his jumpsuit and trench coat. He carries a high-tech katana in a scabbard and a blaster in a holster. He also wears a high-tech monocle on his "good eye."